Emily Saunders finds the missing piece of her puzzle
By Allie Shah, Star Tribune
Last update: December 30, 2007 - 6:15 AM
Emily Saunders made a startling discovery this year - she has a twin sister who lives halfway around the globe. This week, the two will come face to face for the first time since their birth 21 years ago.
For five minutes, Emily Saunders was alone. Then her twin sister was born. Their mother, a poor South Korean woman who was not expecting twins and gave birth out of wedlock, made a fateful decision. She would give one girl up. That was Emily, who was adopted when she was 4 months old by Jackie and Eric Saunders of Wyoming, Minn.
For 21 years, neither Emily nor her twin, Eunjin, had a clue the other one existed. Their families did not tell them until this year. On Thursday, Emily will fly to South Korea to meet her mirror image and try to stitch her past with her present. She hopes meeting her sister can fill a void that has contributed to turmoil in her life.The days leading up to the trip are a mixture of excitement and nervousness. She's packing a lifetime of photos to share with her sister. She also has a long list of questions for her birth mother, who has colon cancer and told Emily she wanted to meet her before she dies. ¶ At the top of Emily's list, not surprisingly, is "Why?"
When the Saunderses chose to adopt Emily, they knew she was a twin. But Jackie Saunders says the adoption agency told them the other sister "must have died" because as a matter of policy, they did not separate twins.
Those words, "must have," gnawed at Jackie Saunders, who kept after the agency. Soon they learned the truth: Eunjin was alive and living with her mother. The Saunderses asked the agency to contact them immediately if the twins' birth mother ever released Eunjin so they could adopt her, too.
Years passed, and the Saunderses did not tell Emily that she had a twin sister....
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